Klarinet Archive - Posting 000141.txt from 1997/10

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Anchor tonguing
Date: Sun, 5 Oct 1997 13:15:49 -0400

On Sun, 5 Oct 1997, Kent J. Krive wrote:

> I am an anchor tonguer, have been all my life, have taught all of my
> beginners anchor tonguing, and I switch any severe
> "jaw-mobility-challenged" students to anchor tongue, at least
> temporarily.

Hearing about this approach makes me feel very uneasy for the students.
I teach many students at the University level (mostly bassoon, oboe and
saxophone, but also sometimes clarinet and flute) who have been playing
for several years, often with no one ever talking with them about
articulation. So, they have often "improvised" methods of tongueing, and
have their own particular type thoroughly ingrained by years of
repetition. Anchor tongueing is one of the types of articulation which I
spend countless hours in trying to help students learn more standard and
more efficient and effective ways. This is a major problem for many
players.

The difficulty is that many of these exceptional types of articulation
interfere with the air stream, yet students are unaware of this. So,
while I agree with your heirarchy (tone production is first, then
articulation, then fingers), I can't equate anchor tongueing with better
tone production. All my experience indicates the contrary.

I suspect that teaching effective articulation and tone production to a
student who had been taught anchor tongueing would be even more difficult
that teaching one who had learned it more of less by experimentation. The
apparent endorsement of this method by a teacher would lend it more of an
air of authority and credence, which would be likely to increase the
student's resistance to learning other ways.

Ed Lacy
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Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
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